longtimeflyin

Was a good watch. He's a very very bright executive and he certainly knows his stuff.

longtimeflyin

Just finished the whole video. I'm going to miss Ben.

When asked what J cabin folks care about most....

"Consistency". "cleanliness of aircraft" "friendliness of crew"

Yup.

Jumper Jack

"Consistency". "cleanliness of aircraft"

Uhm....

KenHamer

You'd think they'd focus more energy on those items.

yyznomad

This sounds familiar... IIRC, it was also quoted or mentioned somewhere in the Sig Service thread or another large thread within the last several months...

CZAMFlyer

Not sure how a 2-year old sit-down session is topical, but what the hey, let's dig into this.

30 seconds in, and I thought: oh here we go, this is obviously a mutually-scripted "interview". Ten seconds later, I heard Air Canada being described as a "disrupter". Not off to a credible start so far. Let's translate the following:

Ben: "We've gone upmarket and downmarket" = we're trying to be all things to everybody, as we try to figure out what our business plan should actually be.
Ben: "We had a trip through bankruptcy in the last decade. We had a second, near-visit nine years ago" = Man, we sure were adrift and lurching for a while.
Ben: "We view our business class product as superior to anything else coming out of North America" = it's 2016, and we haven't yet actually seen Polaris and Delta One.
Joe: "Well that ties into my next question" = do you think the audience is buying into this faux banter?
Ben: "We view ourselves as the best-kept secret in the US" = our marketing team has dropped the ball on a very lucrative market for a very long time.
Ben: "We'll have satellite wifi starting to be installed on our triple sevens and 787s this year" = hey, I said 'started', I didn't give you a date you can reliably use it.
Joe: "Let me tease out something that we talked about backstage" = here comes that softball question you asked me to lob your way.
Ben: "We want to exceed the expectations of our customers" = we'll blunder so frequently that you'll come to the airport expecting a low enough bar that even we can step over.
Joe: "I'm certain that you survey your business-class passengers" = so Ben, you asked me to ask you about your business-class passengers...
Ben: "So I'm going to put a plug in for our airline here" = what, did you think I was sitting here for any other purpose?
Joe: "Huh, that's completely good" = I'm at a loss to come up with a meaningful reply.
Joe: "Makes complete sense" = I am incapable of asking a challenging question and am beholden to my guests.
Ben: "With a new model that is working very well in the marketplace, we're getting back to our rightful share" = Look, we're entitled to be the big fish in this pond, and with this enduring attitude, we shouldn't be surprised when people react so viscerally against us at home, no matter what we do.
Ben: "I think we offer a very compelling product offering in all of our cabins" = I say 'I think' because I've never actually flown a longhaul flight in our 31" Y seats.
Ben: "The pre-clearance facilities we have in all of these three airports is a big plus" = I'm just gonna pretend that US pre-clearance is exclusive to Air Canada customers, and not available to everyone else.
Joe: "Right, and that's a great attribute about the hard product from Air Canada" = I didn't actually listen to what you just described, nor put it into context.
Ben" We do have labour peace, which is, you know, unheard of in our industry; we never had that" = Did I say industry? I meant company. Unheard of in our company.
Ben: "For someone, like, an aviation geek like me..." = I still silently weep when I realize what I've done to the comfort of the majority of our customers.
Joe: "As we close, I'm gonna ask for a final frame up question for Air Canada" = As we close, I'm gonna feed you the final frame up question the Air Canada team wrote for me.
Ben: "We invented the black box" = By 'we', I mean an Australian scientist that had nothing to do with Air Canada.
Ben: "Just to give you an example, first non-smoking airline" = OK, United actually implemented a non-smoking policy two years before we did; we just expanded it across our entire route network quicker than they did, but you know, details...
Ben: "...first airline kiosk" = we merely bought the first airline kiosk that somebody else - YVR - developed
Joe: "You invented the Star Alliance" = you were the smallest of five founding member airlines, but as long as we're growing our noses here...
Ben: "We'd definitely like to reclaim our position as a top ten global carrier on all metrics" = provided, of course, you gloss over whether those metrics are in fact true or important to our customers.
Ben: "We would like to be viewed as a key innovator in this place" = We'd like to be viewed as a lot of things, but that desire doesn't make our innovation claims true.
Ben: "We're setting up a technology lab in-house" = we're poised to fall precipitously from a cliff in terms of technological proficiency.
Joe: "That's a nice way to frame up and end this session" = Basically, I was just a prop sitting across from you, wasn't I?

Fiordland

Obviously this is not a journalistic piece but a session in an industry association. They could have just as easily given him the 30 minutes to present a power point deck. Instead they did this little chat by the fireplace type thing.

What I think you can get out of it two years after is how well he and his team lived up to the expectation that was created in 2016.

Every company I have ever seen that must describe itself as "world leading" honestly is not. If they were it would be a non-issue and they would not even mention it. Lets ignore all that. What he did do was incrementally improve business class, open up new routes, increase the transit traffic from the us and a separate business unit to go chase after the low end of the market.

However it looks like they have hit a wall on being able to continue to execute that business plan. The US to Europe and Asia is a massive market where AC has a small percentage, The fact they are slowing down or stopping expansion of the wide-body fleet means they run that growth strategy as far they can and now need to come up with something else.

CZAMFlyer

Yes, it was clear from the opening sentences. I merely wonder why they exaggerated Air Canada's innovative accomplishments in such a clumsy and easily-disputable fashion.
And I suspect Smith knows this, hence his move along to bigger & better things before he is moved along. Although, given his anticipated fly-through tenure in Paris, perhaps that too is a stepping stone.

24left

@CZAMFlyer
Well.....perhaps it wasn't your intention, but this is the best comedy I've read here on AC FT Central in a while. I couldn't even begin to match your creative and wiring skills. Bravo!

Whether these interviews with Calin, Ben, anyone else from the C-Suite, or other executives at other companies, these things are always staged. Maybe prepared questions are provided in advance, or maybe a coach is available or maybe not. Either way, one has to know the audience that these interviews target - customers, shareholders, employees, or the combo meal. Then some of what is said may or may not make sense.

Good for Ben that he is moving to another challenge in his career.

(I believe we owe each other a nice glass of Merlot . Oh wait, did I say bottle? )